Wait for the sun

As I mentioned last time, I did plant out my over-eager peas, and here they are trying to grasp at my pea net structure.

I visited them on Saturday and they were looking slightly the worse for wear after a couple of heavy frosts and rain, but i'm holding out for a recovery this week.

My main lesson so far has been not to get ahead of myself. I'm much better off waiting an extra month than trying to plant anything too early. Its too much heartache to see everything die as soon as its outside.

Unless you're very keen I'd also forget about overwintering onions (mine all rotted) and broad beans (95% dead). If successful you will get crops a few weeks earlier, but for all the effort its probably just not worth it.

So next year i'm going to start off some peas and broad beans in root trainers at the start of March, with the aim of getting them and my onions in at the end of the month.

On a positive note, however, my Garlic appears to be doing okay. I started them off in a seed tray back in November and planted them out last month, and so far they appear to be doing well.

If you're eager to get going in February then my success story is my tomato and chilli peppers. I started them off in my propagtor, and transfered them to a south facing windowsill where they're coming along nicely.

Anyway with so little to do at the moment i'm having to keep it brief, but have attached a picture of the allotment where on a good day you can see that Spring really is on its way!